Geneva – The World Council of Churches (WCC) has called for an independent inquiry to look into the killing of an independence leader in the Indonesian region of Irian Jaya.

Martin Doolard, of the Geneva-based WCC, told the UN Human Rights Commission that most people in Irian Jaya viewed the death of Eluay as a deliberate act of the state authorities to silence him.

He urged the Commission, currently holding its annual six-week session, to use its influence on the Indonesian government to stop the repression of people in the region and not to suppress their demand to exercise their right to self-determination.

"We also urge the Commission to call on the Indonesian government to establish a credible, legal, independent inquiry team that includes international human rights experts, to investigate the involvement of state institutions in the assassination of Theys Eluay and to bring the perpetrators to justice," Doolard said.

Eluay was abducted on November 10 last year and his body was found the following day in his car at the bottom of a ravine. A police coroner concluded that he died of asphyxiation.

The WCC said Jakarta had failed to establish a legally constituted and credible inquiry team to carry out the investigation. Moreover, it said two inquiry commissions had both found the killing to be an ordinary crime.

Inhabitants of Irian Jaya, known locally as Papua, have been demanding independence since the 1960s following Indonesia's takeover in 1963 on the heels of the departing Dutch colonisers.

The WCC is made up of 342 churches in more than 100 countries across the world representing virtually all Chrisian traditions. The Roman Catholic Church is not a member of the organisation.